Episode 286 - Live at Montreux Jazz Festival by Anna Von Hausswolff

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This week we talk about something positively wintery indeed, as we explore the foreboding sounds of Swedish sonic sorceress Anna von Hausswolff. Tracing influences from baroque pop storytellers like Tori Amos through to the cavernous industrial churn of Swans, we chart Anna's evolution across a series of bold studio works and her new live album.

While early piano-led efforts drifted into listless bluesy indulgence at times, subsequent records built in scale and ambition, making powerful use of church pipe organs alongside doom-laden guitars. We make the case though that it is most recent album, a live collection titled Live at Montreux Jazz Festival, where von Hausswolff's songs are distilled to their dramatic, emotionally coruscating essentials.

Spotlighting tracks from latest LP 'Dead Magic' alongside back catalogue standout 'The Miraculous', the performance captures a gifted ensemble locked into Anna's haunted creative vision. Sweeping highlights like 'The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra' and 'Ugly and Vengeful' twist and turn from Radiohead-esque ethereal fragility to Sunn O))) styled nightmarish peaks of noise, never losing their hypnotic grip.

After a trademark meandering musical nexus takes us via Napoleon Bonaparte's living heirs to Kate Bush and Scott Walker, we also discuss the latest on our recent break and our upcoming Christmas episode plans. Which we’re taking questions for now, so if you want to contribute, send em over now!